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Scat singing
Scat Singing ---- ---- Scat singing is vocal style using emotive, onomatopoeic, and improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all that is most associated with jazz. Scat singing antecedents in the West African practice of assigning fixed syllables to percussion patterns and was originated by African-Americans. The style was made famous Louis Daniel Armstrong, a popular jazz musician. ---- "Boop-De-Dooden-Do" (1852) According to a 1852 article on African-Americans, it was quoted that it was often for them to sing old-time hymns and tunes with unction and that "Boop-De-Dooden-Do" was often in the chorus. According to white Americans of the 1800s, their singing had no counterpart or competition in the white race and that it wouldn't be the music of the future. Although, several decades later, things of course changed and then everybody wanted to emulate African-Americans' singing style. Variations "Vo-Do-Do-De-O" (spelled many different ways) is a scat sound and or expression that goes back to 1926 and was often interjected into songs. Scat singers often have their own personal scatting styles. Sarah Vaughan would prefer "Shoo-Doo-Shoo-Bee-Ooo-Bee" and Betty Carter use sounds like "Louie-Ooie-La-Laa-Laa". In the 1958 novelty song "Witch Doctor" by Ross Bagdasarian Sr., the "Oo-Ee-Oo-Ah-Ah" is a slight nod to scatting. Ella Fitzgerald used a variety of scat songs in her music. Ella used scat sounds such as "Boo-Bi-Yoo-Bi", "Bi-Yu-Di-Di-Ooh-Dun", "Dabba-Oohbee", Bi-Yu-Di-Dee-Doodun", "Di-Di-Oohnbee", "Dee-Boognbee"m "Ah-Ee-Dee", "Doo-Doo-Abbi-Woo-Do-Ee", "Ein-Bap-Bap-Dein", "Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee-Dee", "Doo-Doot-Doop-Antdoodly-Wah", "Oohtoo-Undn-Datley-Udnda-Da" "Eun-Bu-Eun-Bi-Un-Ba-Un-Bey", "Heee-He-a-We-Ah", "Eet-Dee-Eutan-Dabbie-Utan", "Dooie-Doo-Doon'lyba", "Bee-Dee-Dee-De-Dee-De-Dee", "Beet-Deet-Dee" among numerous others. Today scat singing is less common, but is still used in jazz music, as today it is rarely used in mainstream music. Scatman John renewed interest in the genre during the early 1990s when he merged jazz singing, pop music and electronica, and scored a hit with "Scatman (Ski Ba Bop Ba Dop Bop)" in 1994, a song which included a variety of scat sounds, most of which that date back to the 20s and 30s. Trivia *Betty Boop's "Boop-Oop-a-Doop" is a form of scat singing and can be expanded to "Boopy-Doopy-Doopy-Doo-Boop-Oopy-Doo", it was always originally finished with a "Bop". The "Bop" is a high pitch squeak which was created by Mae Questel, and it was rarely used by the other women who voiced Betty Boop. *Scat singing during the 1920s and 1930s was often used in novelty songs. *Cab Calloway is one of the most notable male scat singers, he often exemplified the use of humorous scatting. Before he became famous he met trumpeter Louis Armstrong in Chicago, who taught him to sing in the scat style. *Gertrude Saunders was the female originator of scat singing, and she inspired other female performers to scat sing by using the technique in early recordings and live performances, most promptly in the all-black musical Shuffle Along. Florence Mills took over where Gertrude left off, but there is no footage of Mills singing, only dancing. he met trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who taught him to sing in the scat style. *Eva Taylor who was also featured in Shuffle Along scat sang, and her husband Clarence Williams wrote several scat songs. One well known song by the latter was "Papa De-Da-Da", a song about a male lover and or performer, with scatting included. *Helen Kane saw African-American child performer Baby Esther Jones (a Florence Mills impersonator) from Chicago scat sing at the Everglades Club in 1928, and not too long after Helen started to scat sing in songs. Apart from being a singer, Esther Jones was also a trained dancer who did the Charleston. *Baby Cox (another Florence Mills impersonator), frequently scat sung and was a wordless singer, who also danced. *Baby Rose Marie scat sings and "Boops" in her 1929 recording of "Don't Be Like That". See Also *Baby-talk ---- Category:Scat Singing Category:Featured